


Chaos Effect

by Slaskia



Series: Demonakos' Playground [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-06
Updated: 2012-04-06
Packaged: 2017-11-16 13:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slaskia/pseuds/Slaskia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard made it to the Citadel and now has to make a choice.  But will she get to make that choice herself?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chaos Effect

**Author's Note:**

> This was my 'oh no you didn't' reaction to the 'original' ME3 endings... (I did find the EC a heck of a lot better though).

Shepard had a difficult choice ahead of her and she knew she likely didn’t have much time to make it.  She was bleeding out and there was no way of knowing how long the Crucible will remain intact before the Reapers blow it to pieces.  Yet, she wasn’t sure if she could _make_ this choice. 

A few moments ago, everything she thought she knew about the Reapers and motivations was shattered.  Beside her stood an AI that called itself the Catalyst, the thing she and her allies had been looking for to make the Crucible work.  What a shock it was to find out the Catalyst was the on the Citadel this whole time…that it _is_ the Citadel.  Now this AI, this thing that took the form a child that had been haunting her dreams ever since the Reapers invaded Earth, told her the Reapers did what they did to prevent the organics from being wiped out by synthetics.  To instill order on chaos. 

_What kind of loopy logic is that?_  she had thought to herself when she first heard it.  If this was true, than the Reapers, being machines themselves, were doing exactly what they are supposed to prevent in the first place.  Yet, she could not bring herself to question it: it was like her will to argue against such foolish logic and ideas was completely drained by her argument with the Illusive Man a not long ago.  

Her mind felt like mush: due to blood loss, exhaustion, PTSD or a combination of all three.  She had to fight to think about the three choices before her and to choose one of them as this…AI…is insisting on her to do.  Which one to take? 

Destroy?  That had been her goal since this whole thing with the Reapers started.  However, it would result in losing all the tech they reversed engineered from the Reaper tech.  Worse, it would mean the Geth would die, synthetic beings that had just been misunderstood and demonized by the Quarians for centuries.  Those two races she managed to bring back together in peace and with the Geth’s help it was looking like the Quarians will completely readapt to living on Rannoch in a short time.  If the Quarians lost the Geth now they may still adapt, but it will take much longer. 

And what of EDI?  She would may ‘die’ as well with this.  Joker may not ever forgive her if she did this.  This was war though: sacrifices are often made…and she had to make so many sacrifices already, what is a few more?  But when was one sacrifice too many? 

_No…too many have died for this war,_  she thought as she turned her gaze away from the red light bathed destruction choice and focused on the beam directly in front of her.  That one lead to the Synthesis option:  to merge all organics and machines together.  This one made her feel uncomfortable: while it may indeed stop the ‘organic vs synthetic’ dilemma, wouldn’t she be playing god? What right does she have to force every living thing, from her allies to races they haven’t even discovered yet, into this arrangement? Wouldn’t it be similar to the Salarians playing god with the Krogan, with how they uplifted them, then to turn around and inflict them with the Genophague when they rebelled?   No, she couldn’t do that. 

Now she looked at the Control choice, the very idea she convinced the Illusive Man was foolish.  To learn that it was really possible was mind blowing.  Then again, her whole situation right now was blowing her mind.  Of all the options after thinking it over, this seemed to be the best option.  It would be so simple to tell the Reapers to go back to dark space and never return, or better yet, to all kamikaze into a star.  Would another organic/synthetic war start up?  Quite likely, but she felt it was best for the galactic races to control their own destiny, not be to herded into a set path by a bunch of machines playing gods. 

Her mind made up, she took a shaky step toward the Control option.  That she will die with this option didn’t faze her, as she was on death’s door anyway.  Her only regret was that she wouldn’t get to retire to a tropical beach with Garrus and adopt a kid or two with him.  As she neared the ramp leading to the device she needed to take to give the Reapers her command, she silently asked for Garrus’ forgiveness for failing to return to him. 

**“Stop right there, mortal.”**  

The voice started her: it wasn’t the Catalyst, Harbinger, or anyone else she knew.  Something fell behind her and when she looked, she saw the gun she had picked up just before entering the conduit.  The whole weapon was smoking, then it turned completely black and disintegrated into a thick cloud of black smoke.  This smoke bellowed across the ground a few paces before swirling up and condensing into a massive figure.  

What emerged looked like something out of her nightmares: a black dragon-like creature that looked to be made up of various old horror movie monsters.  It had three pairs of ‘proper’ limbs, though one pair was small and looked kind of useless compared to the full sized ones: this pair was set between the base of the neck and the full sized front limbs.  On its back were three pairs of wings that looked vaguely insectoid in appearance, the tail was a tangled mess of ‘mini’ tails that kept twisting and flaying in random directions.  The head had no eyes, lower jaw split in two and a crown of twisty silver horns behind the dome of the top of its head. 

Shepard reached for her weapon out of reflex, only to realize that she had no weapon now: that thing _used_ to be her sole weapon.  The dragon thing seemed amused by her reaction, a faint smile creasing its leathery lips.  **“Calm yourself, mortal,”**  it said, the voice definitely masculine. **“I am not here for you.”**  

“You don’t belong here,” the Catalyst said. 

**“I don’t?”**  the dragon thing said mockingly.  **“Oh, I am so _sorry_ , I will leave right now…NOT!” ** Shepard could have sworn the floor beneath her feet shook with that last word.  **“I am not about to leave when I finally found what I’ve been searching for…after millions of years!”**  

“Are you…the last of your species from another cycle?”  Shepard asked. 

**“Hmm?  Oh no. My kind do not live on this plane of existence, so are not subjected the falsey logic of this…thing.  I’d explain more, but in your current state you are less likely to comprehend it than usual, mortal. Oh and call me Demonakos.”**   The dragon thing, Demonakos, strode over to the apparition that was the Catalyst.  **“You…have been a very naughty boy.”**  

“What?” the Catalyst said, clearly confused. 

**“Mother is very angry…,”** Demonakos continued.  **“Mucking around with Her plan and all.  Organics are _supposed_ to live out their lives and learn the lessons She puts forth.  But no…you and your _Reapers_ go around and fuck that up every 50,000 years or so.  A mortal soul can’t learn anything if its crammed into a bloody machine with thousands of others!” **  

“What?”  the Catalyst repeated. 

**“I admit,**  Demonakos said, apparently oblivious to the Catayst’s confusion. **Watching all the harvesting and the futile  
fighting was amusing for the first…five ‘cycles’ or so…lots of nice chaos and all.  But after all is said and done its rather boring:  I have to wait at least two thousand years before anything exciting starts up again on individual planets…longer for galaxy wide stuff.  Sure I could go cause some supernovas or something in the meantime but that is so…beginning of the universe: it’s like watching paint dry.” ** 

Shepard shook her head, having a hard time grasping what this creature was saying: was this thing, Demonakos, implying it’s been around since the start of the universe itself?  Did she pass out at some point and is having another dream?  Meanwhile the Catalyst still looked confused. 

“What? It said, for the third time.  Now Demonakos looked at it closely, as if really studying it for the first time.  After a moment he snorted and seemed very disappointed. 

**“Oh how embarrassing,”**  he griped.  **“All this time I thought I was hunting an actual _sentient_ entity, but no…this thing is nothing but a VI.  You cannot think for yourself at all: everything you say is nothing but pre-programmed babble given to you by your own creators. No wonder your logic is all flawed.” **  

At this point the Catalyst seemed to decide to ignore the creature and focus on Shepard once more.  “You must choose.” 

**“She is not going to ‘choose’ anything,”**  Demonakos said.  **“I will be the one doing the choosing.  As for you…go to your room.”**  

“Wha…” the Catalyst started to say when Demonakos snapped the fingers of one of his mini hands and it instantly disappeared. 

“What…did you just do?” Shepard asked, still overwhelmed by this whole ordeal. 

**“Turned off its holographic emitter, nothing more,”** Demonakos said.   **“I was tempted to just fry its circuitry, but that would keep me from doing what I need to do here.”**  

“What is that?” 

**“The same thing you came here for,”** Demonakos said as he strode up the ramp toward the Control device.  **“Get rid of the Reapers. I could just destroy them all one by one, but that tried that one cycle: it got boring after the hundredth one.  There’s only so many ways you can destroy a machine after all.  Besides…doing it this way…I can have so much _fun_ with the Reapers before I just have them all blow up at once….”**  

“But…wouldn’t that device…hurt you?” 

**“Hmm?  Oh don’t insult me, mortal.  I would think that by now you’d get it that this would be nothing more than a static shock to me.”**   After a brief pause, he added.   **“On second thought: you _are_ practically dead, so I suppose I can forgive you for not being able to think straight.” **  

“How…thoughtful of you….” 

**“Ya know, I am in good mood right now, so, here.”**   Beside Shepard some kind of portal appeared, ringed by a similar black smoke Demonakos formed himself from.  **“Go though that and you’ll be back on Earth.”**  

Shepard looked at the portal, uncertain if she can trust it.  What did she have to lose?  As she stepped through, she heard Demonakos cry out with happy glee:  **“Hey Harbinger!  I am ‘assuming control’ of your ass!”**  

The next thing she saw was the ground as she fell flat on her face.  Struggling, she managed to lift her head up enough to look around:  it was dark, with a lot of ruined buildings, but no sign or sounds of battle.  Where was she? 

“Shepard!” 

“Garrus?”  Shepard couldn’t believe her ears:  was it really Garrus Varakan?  Sure enough, a familiar Turian was at her side seconds later, hefting her up into his arms. 

“I thought I had lost you when Coats said Hammer had been decimated,” Garrus said.  “What happened?” 

“I made it to the conduit…Anderson too,” Shepard started to explain as Garrus started to carry her away from the battlefield.  More soldiers joined them as they went. “We met the Illusive Man: he’s dead…but so is Anderson.  The Catalyst…was some kind of VI…told me to make a choice.” 

“A heck of a choice you made, considering what the Reapers are doing right now.” 

“What happened?” 

“Well…all the husks look like they are square dancing…and the Reapers themselves:  according to Joker it looks like they are doing the conga.” 

“What?” 

“Yeah…that’s what everyone else is saying…but we’re not complaining…gives us a chance to regroup.” 

“So…is that what Demonakos meant by having ‘fun’ with them?” 

“Who?” 

“Someone else I met up there…not sure if you’d believe me if I told you everything….” 

“Well, Shepard…after everything we’ve been through and what I just saw, I’d probably believe you.”


End file.
